Article: "Aikido is much more than just a 'martial art'"
Posted 5/27/2009 1:28pm [from Jun Akiyama]
Here's a nice article entitled "Aikido is much more than just a 'martial art'" by Kenneth Baker of the San Francisco Chronicle about his nearly 25 years of experience in aikido.
From the article: "At heart, the student of aikido strives to realize that anyone who would inflict violence must themselves be afflicted, and we have no excuse for punishing the afflicted. I say "at heart," because while we may readily recognize the correctness of this ethical posture, internalizing it does not come easy, if ever. And the essence of aikido practice, in one view, is internalizing."